MLL TEAMY LIFE-LONG SOFTBA

Sunday, February 17, 2013

SpEd or not to SpEd

What do you do when you REALLY want to help some students but the administration will not let you? From past experience, I know what they need and I know OW to help them, but I am being turned away every chance I try to do something. I know what a REAL 504 plan looks like and WHAT it does, I know what a REAL SpEd form should do but according to my school “we don’t have special education students”. I KNOW better but my hands are tired.

I know that when these students hit the public school system next year they will be referred and evaluated but according to “OUR” school they are not SpEd nor are they listed as 504. Sure we have a 504 form but it is not the same form the public school uses nor is it accomplishing what it SHOULD accomplish!

My hands feel so tired every day so I just have to make the best of a back situation. According to my school “we have the post top students in the area” but I know that is not so. We have the most academically motivated students in the area”, which I know is not true. “Our students will all go to college and become doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc, I also know that is not true”. It might have ben true years ago but over the last 10 years or so they have filled the enrollment with whoever will pay the bills.

They need to open their eyes and smell the roses and the stink weeds. Look around you. We have the same student population that the public schools have, drawn from the same students the public schools have. Maybe not as many of the ones the public school has to deal with but we DO have them!

Sooner than they want to, this school better open their eyes. I have only been here a year and a half and I see students that in my ‘old school’ would have been classified as special ed or at least lebeled as 504 and helped through the system. I don’t have a problem helping. I started in SpEd and over the years I have always worked with Sped teachers because they knew I would help these kids get the education t hey would need. But here I am being told to shut up and just go with the flow. I don’t like that.

Last year I had a students who is now paying for her educational problems in high school. This year I have four students will pay big time in high school if they get there. Which is another thing. THEY WILL GET THERE because we are not allowed to fail them because mom and dad have paid big money for them to get an education.

This is so sad but what can I do? I can only do so much before I am the one to lose my job. And that would do the others any good!

-----------------As I read thru many of the other blogs here I keep finding that most NEVER post anything. Now some do, but MOST don't.

2 comments:

The sad reality is that if your students were labeled as SPED students, they wouldn't be able to fail for that reason. That's why I have students in my 8th grade ELA class that only read at a first grade level.

And for those that go on to public schools, it will probably take an entire year to get enough documentation in place to recommend them for a SPED program, which means it will be yet another year they're missing out on the services they need.

So Erin, what you are reminding me is that I need to keep plugging away at what I am trying to do no matter what the administation says and try to at least TRY to do something that would help my students.

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About Me

This blog mostly deals with MrE's Middle School history classes. However, he reserves the right to cover any other topic that suits his grade levels. I love my job and I'm looking for other middle school folks who are like-minded!